What’s Hot in 2010?

The U.S. National Restaurant Association surveys each year professional members of the American Culinary Federation about menu trends. For 2010, the category of preparations shows sous vide and smoking in the top 5. For the full trend report click here.

Smoked Chocolate Ice Cream

A couple weeks ago, Pastry Chef and Pacojet fanatic Kriss Harvey posted his technique for making smoked chocolate ice cream. Chocolate is one of the ingredients that not only absorbs other aromas rather well, but works wonderfully with savory flavors and spices. A hint of  smoke may just be the perfect finish to it. Chef Harvey explains why he is so excited about the Smoking Gun as a tool for chocolate:

Pastry Chef Kriss Harvey

“I have always loved the idea of smoked chocolate. Smoking food in a kitchen always used the hot smoking technique and you can imagine the mess hot smoking chocolate would cause. I have made smoked chocolate ice cream using the beautiful smoked tea from China, Lapsang Souchong but it felt dishonest. In reality, it was more Smoked Tea Chocolate Ice Cream than Smoked Chocolate Ice Cream.”

For chocolate ice cream, Chef Harvey points out in another post that one must use a chocolate with a percentage of 64% cocoa or higher. Valrhona’s Pur Caraibe 66%, Manjari 64%, Guanaja 70%, Guittard’s Machu Pichu 65%, Chocovic’s Tobago 64%, Ocumare 71%, Guaranda 71% and Claudio Corallo’s 75% are all excellent choices. The higher the percentage, the less needed in the recipe.

for more info visit cuisinetechnology.com and advancedgourmet.com

While the Smoking Gun allows the perfect finish in flavor profile, the Pacojet allows the perfect texture of ice cream. Here is a recipe for powdered chocolate ice cream, we found at a Pacojet Fanpage on Facebook:

“Powdered Chocolate Ice Cream” by Albert Adrià

80g chocolate couverture, 70%
30g cocoa powder
30g sucrose
100g heavy cream, 35% fat
300g water

1. Combine and boil water, cream, sugar, and cocoa powder. Remove from heat and combine with chopped chocolate, melting thoroughly for a homogeneous texture.
2. Transfer to a Pacojet beaker and freeze for 24 hours.
3. Process in Pacojet. “Return to freezer to stabilize.” Repeat this last step.

To add a flavor of smoke to your couverture, expose it to smoke from the Smoking Gun in a plastic bag or container as described in Kriss Harvey’s blog.

French Culinary Institute’s Sous-Vide Primer

If you wonder about questions like:

• Should I sear before or after?
• Which temperature would you apply to which protein or vegetable?
• Which temperature zones are showing which results?
• What cooking time ensures food safety?

Dave Arnold from the French Culinary Institute in NYC and his team did a fantastic job in providing a detailed primer that answers all the questions you might have about sous vide and low temp cooking.  Thank you so much for sharing this with everybody! Visit Cooking Issues to see an overview post and click here for a detailed primer incl. a downloadable PDF.  It’s worth to check out their Sous Vide Intensive Courses… click here

Free PDF Sous Vide Primer Download at "Cooking Issues"

TO STIR OR NOT TO STIR?

A couple weeks ago, we posted important points to consider before you buy a circulator. Some of you replied asking: How big of a difference is it to cook with a water bath controlled by a thermal circulator versus a non-stirred water bath?

The answer depends on 3 points:

Level of precision desired and needed

Click here for experiment video

For delicate and short-time cooked foods (seafood, eggs and certain cuts meats) a non-stirred bath is not able to regulate temperature and uniformity with absolute precision. Meaning, the temperature of the bath will overshoot and food will be cooked at a higher temperature than desired.  Consider also that the less precise core temperature of a non-stirred bath and longer response time may create a risk factor in food safety that is not given with a bath controlled by a immersion circulator.

Setting and workload
Applied in a professional setting a non-stirred bath cannot cope with the demands as well as an immersion circulator controlled bath. It takes significantly longer to reach set temperature and to get back to set temperature after the product is added to the bath.

Portability and Practicality
The PolyScience immersion circulator can be attached to virtually any tank and when not in use stored easily in a drawer or cabinet. Cleaning is obviously a much simpler act and allows to use a dishwasher for the bath.

To demonstrate the these points in a direct comparison, we’ve set up an experiment and documented it in this video and data chart. The results very clearly illustrate why cooking sous vide with a stirred bath gives superior results.

Study on Balancing Workload with Sous Vide

Before looking into the new things of 2010, let’s not miss the opportunity for a quick review of the hectic time in your kitchen over the holidays, including the brunch the morning after New Year’s Eve Gala Dinner!

It is for many chefs the craziest few days of the year.  Endless 16h shifts, just to barely come by with the sheer amount of preparations in between service. We and a couple of our friends on Facebook thought that Chef Chris Windus posted an interesting brief study on how to balance work load for New Year’s Eve by including sous vide cooking. It starts very dramatic.

“I will admit at one point Aaron, chef de cuisine, and I looked at each other and it was questionable if we were going to make it through today and tomorrow with smooth services…” Read the full study on his blog here

Moving on and looking forward into 2010, we asked on Jan, 6 on Facebook: “What are your wildest dreams for kitchen technology in 2010?” Some of the answers are really wild and just inspiring! Check it out (no log in required)

If we haven’t yet, let us wish you a successful 2010!